A tribute to classic 1980’s side-scrolling
shooter Defender, built on the sort of twin-stick mechanics that felt
revelatory back in 2005 with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (which also,
appropriately, was also it’s host console’s best launch title) Resogun is a
game of familiar foundations dragged into contemporary relevance with a mastery
of next-gen technology and game design of quite deft balance.
With Resogun, Housemarque have approached
the twin-stick shooter with a sensibility closer to that of a ‘sandbox’
developer than one whose sole remit is “shoot everything”. Humans, multipliers,
bonuses and high scores are four of the key strands open to the player; it’s
mastering which approach to take and when that drives you further into the
game, as the game’s striking initial aesthetic appeal gives way to a deeper
than anticipated structure. Maintaining the multiplier drives your score up at
a faster rate, but if saving every last human is your aim then your focus needs
to shift quickly to locating the ‘keepers’, special enemies who release one
human per successive wave cleared. Each saved human bestows a bonus, such as
points or, more crucially, an extra life or bomb. It’s in balancing the two
factors that the real high scores start to emerge, while this is without taking
into account the five-stage arc replete with end-of-level bosses.
How you choose to play Resogun is up to
you, but it’s the manner in which it supports each of these tactics, whilst
never being anything less than a brutally addictive, enjoyably intense
experience, that is the game’s brilliance. Developers Housemarque established
their reputation with the magnificent twin-stick double of Super Stardust Delta
and Dead Nation, but it’s Resogun that is their masterpiece.